


How To Do Right

by zombiesbecrazy



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: #batfamcontentwar, Brothers, Dead Robins, Gen, Past Character Death, jason says ass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-27 06:22:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12075309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zombiesbecrazy/pseuds/zombiesbecrazy
Summary: Damian's alive again and Jason knows that he should talk to him about it, from one dead Robin to another, but doesn't quite know what to do.





	How To Do Right

**Author's Note:**

> Written for #batfamcontentwar on Tumblr

Jason stood in the doorway and watched Damian move around his bedroom. The kid obviously knew he was there but had ignored him so far which Jason took to mean that his presence wasn’t _not_ wanted. 

Damian was inspecting his belongings, seeing if they had been moved or gone missing in his absence. They had just rescued him from Apokolips a little over 24 hours ago and Jason had noticed that Damian hadn’t been left by himself for more than a few moments.  Even when he had been asleep, Bruce had stayed in the room, not taking his eyes off him for a second, exhausted as he was.  It had taken both Alfred and Jason to convince Bruce that he needed to sleep and Jason had promised that he’d keep an eye on Damian until he woke up again, when it became clear that that was going to be the only way to get the man to just lie down.  He had almost died himself to get Damian back and if anyone deserved a nap after all this, it was Bruce.  It had taken them longer to get Bruce in his room and into his bed than he had thought if Damian was now up and alert or maybe the kid had been awake earlier and just pretending to be asleep. 

Apparently satisfied with the state of his room, Damian sat back down on his bed, leaned against the headboard and began scratching Titus’ head.  The dog hadn’t left his side since he returned either, but was fast asleep on the bed now. It had been a long day for Titus too.

Probably the first dog to go to Apokolips. Ace would be jealous.

Without looking at Jason, Damian said softly, “I was wondering how long it would take for you to come to see me.” 

Of course he did.  The kid was smart, if not a little rough around the edges, and Jason knew a little something about both those things. There was no reason to lie or make excuses, and even if there were, that wasn’t really Jason’s style. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not particularly. There isn’t much to speak of.  Being dead was just like being unconscious. I was fighting with Heretic alongside Father and Grayson, and then I woke up in the cave. It’s not as if I remember being dead.” Damian shrugged, but he gestured at the bed so Jason came into the room and sat at the foot against the post with his feet stretch out towards Damian. “I had a nightmare about the actual battle when I was asleep earlier, but that is to be expected.”

Jason nodded in agreement, “Nightmares happen to everyone after a fight goes south. Even if you don’t die.” He understood where Damian was coming from.  Everyone always talked about Jason was so messed up from dying but in reality, death itself wasn’t the problem; it was everything that came before and after that pushed him over the edge. Death was quiet. Crawling out of your own grave was not. “You did come back with some super powers though, so that’s pretty spiffy. Wish that had happened to me.” Damian smiled a little, probably thinking about how he had literally flown up the steps from the cave earlier, much to everyone’s surprise. “Anything I can do? From one dead Robin to another?”

“What could you possibly do?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? Everyone probably thought that Jason would be able to help Damian with this, but Jason really didn’t know how. It’s not like their situations were anything alike, besides being dead. At best, he could be someone to lean on and that was at least more than he had had. He hummed in agreement, “I’m not sure.  I learned a bit from being dead.  And recovering from being dead.  Lesson one – don’t be an ass to people who are trying to empathize.  It’s not their fault that they don’t get it. They’re trying.  There isn’t exactly a book on ‘how to talk to a resurrected person’ that they can read for nifty tips.” Jason did smile a bit at the thought of seeing a ‘Handbook for Communicating with the Recently Undeceased’ book on the shelf. Maybe he’d write one someday. “Except for me.  You can be an ass to me.” If anything, Jason could let himself be a target for Damian’s frustration.  Frustration that was bound to come at some point even if it wasn’t there now.

“-tt-” Damian clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes at Jason. “Not if you’re giving me permission.”

“Fine then, brat.”

“What’s the second lesson?”

“Don’t try to kill everyone who makes you angry. That’s actually a good life lesson in general, but I was pretty murderous post Pit.” Jason stretched his legs out of the bed and resettled. “Ok, there isn’t like an actual list of lessons I have prepared. I just thought you might need to hang out with someone who gets it.”

Damian didn’t respond, but didn’t ask him to leave either, so Jason stays put.  The manor seems quiet in the night and Jason thinks that that is when he likes it best. It’s a calm that only exists late in the night, when the patrols are done and before anyone has to be awake for the day. Everyone is home and safe and at peace.

Almost everyone. Jason knows what is going to upset Damian the most and isn’t sure how to talk about it, even though it needs to be done.

“One of the hardest parts is not the being dead, which does suck beyond belief, but it’s what you missed while you gone.  Time moved on while you stood still. When you wake up, things are different.” Jason doesn’t want to tell him about Dick, doesn’t want to be _that_ person, but the kid needs to know.

But Damian beats him to it, avoiding Jason’s gaze and his voice so small. “Father told me Grayson died.”

“He did.”

“I know it’s childish, but I keep hoping that he’ll come back. Like me.”

“After what just happened to you it isn’t childish, but I want to make sure that you understand that it won’t happen.” Jason nudges him with his foot, and it’s enough to get Damian to look at him. “Not everyone can be brought back. And sometimes when they do, they don’t come back right. Most of the time, dead is dead. We are the exceptions, not the rule.” Jason knew for a fact that neither himself, Dick or Tim wanted to be put in a Lazarus Pit if killed in action; the three of them had talked about it after Damian was gone and Bruce was spiraling through his grief. They needed to know to watch out for each other’s wishes because watching Bruce implode made them realize they couldn’t necessarily trust him to think straight if it happened again. “Dick wouldn’t want to come back ‘wrong’ like me.”

“You aren’t ‘wrong’, Todd.”

“You can’t quite say I’m ‘right’ though, can you?”

Damian looked at him as if he were considering his options and shrugged again, “I didn’t know you before.  You may have always been the way you are now.”

“Are you trying to say that I was always crazy?” _Loose cannon, maybe, but crazy?_

“I don’t have enough data to give an appropriate answer.” He started petting Titus’ soft ears and looked away from Jason again. “I miss him.”

“Dick?”

“Of course.” Damian gave a long sigh and stared at his hands. “From my perspective, it’s as if he just vanished from reality. It’s hard to explain. To me he was just with me yesterday, by my side battling with Heretic, but he’s been gone for months to the rest of you.”

“I get that.”

“You do?”

“When I came back I felt like that about being Robin. I was Robin and then when I woke up, I wasn’t and had been replaced.  Seemed like I had just blinked and everything was completely different.  It’s not the same, but its similar.” He sees the kid nod slightly. “I miss him too.” Damian looked at Jason skeptically through narrowed eyes and Jason could only give him a small smile in response. “We may not have always got along but he always insisted that we were family; even when I was trying to kill him. I don’t think I knew how much I believed him until he was actually gone.”

After Dick had died, Jason had wanted nothing more than to talk to him again, to apologize for everything he had said and done after he had come back, because now he _got_ it. Now he understood what his own death had done to Dick all those years ago. He finally got it, but he couldn’t take back some of the things he had said or done. It was hard to live with and the grief had taken him by surprise. “Tim and I had two brothers die on us. Really quickly after another. Just because it’s been a couple months doesn’t mean that it can’t still hurt.”

“He was my partner and now…” Damian trails off and it seems like he’s having trouble sorting his thoughts in to words. “I know Father was with him when it happened and they were partners first, but…” His voice was cracking and he started a third time, “He died and I wasn’t there. I wasn’t there for him,” his words trail off into a whisper, “he was there for me.”

Tears started rolling out of Damian’s eyes and something inside Jason broke. Damian was so strong and tough all the time that people could forget that he was still just a kid dealing with things that regular kids shouldn’t have to even think about. Bruce may be his father, but Dick was his Batman and brother all rolled into one and Jason had no idea how to help with that. What would Dick do if he was here now?  What would he want Jason to do?

“Need a hug?”

Damian held himself stiff and sniffed a bit, but didn’t move to touch his tear streaked face. “No, Todd.  I do not need a hug.”

“I’ll try that again. Do you want a hug? I’m not Dick, but I’ve been told that I’m a very good hugger.”

Damian hesitated and then nodded slightly.  Jason moved from his spot at the end of the bed and wrapped his arms tightly around the younger boy.  After a few moments, Damian relaxed and squeezed Jason back tightly, arms barely able to reach all the way around him.

“Your hug was more than adequate.” Damian mumbled against his chest, giving no indication that he was going to let go any time soon.

Jason reached up and put one of his hands in the kid’s hair and felt him relax even more into him, “I’m going to put that on my resume.”

This was something that Jason could do right.


End file.
